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Stolen Piece Of Art Found On Spielberg`s Collection

Steven Spielberg has always been known as one of the finest film directors in Hollywood. In fact, movies such as E.T, Jaws and Jurassic Park have certainly put him up in the hall of fame of movie directors. If that?s not enough, he has been named the ?as the most "powerful" and "influential" figure in the motion picture industry?, and at the end of the 20th century LIFE magazine named him the most influential person of his generation. It may sound weird then, that a Norman Rockwell painting, who was reported stolen more than 30 years ago, has shown up in Spielberg?s private collection.

Nevertheless, the movie genius is not suspected of anything right now, and it even was his staff who contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The painting, whose name is ?Russian Schoolroom?, shows a group of children looking at a bust of Lenin. Spielberg, who?s considered a major Rockwell collector, bought this specific painting from an art dealer in 1989, without knowing that it had been stolen from a small gallery in Clayton, Missouri, in 1973

?We have no doubt that he didn?t know anything about the real nature of this painting? told FBI Special Agent Chris Calarco to the LA Times. It is still not clear what will eventually happen with the painting, but for the moment it is staying right where it was ? Spielberg?s collection. ?It couldn?t be any safer in any other place? commented Calarco, and he probably knows what he?s talking about.